Employers: Prepare for Paid Leave today

Starting January 1, 2026, Paid Leave will offer payments and job protections so people can take time off work to care for themselves or their loved ones during some of life’s most important moments.

As an employer, you play an important role in Paid Leave. You will help your employees access and use the program.

You can start preparing now. Use this list to get your organization ready. We will add more resources to this page as Paid Leave gets closer to launch.

Set up your accounts

As an employer, you will need an Employer Account and an Administrator Account to meet your responsibilities under the new program. For more information about these accounts, visit the Paid Leave accounts page.

Take these steps to set up your accounts:

Register for an Employer Account
Designate a Paid Leave Administrator in your Employer Account
Create a Paid Leave Administrator Account

Notify your employees

You must notify your employees about Paid Leave by December 1, 2025. You are required to both hang a Paid Leave poster and inform employees individually.

Hang a workplace poster
Notify individual employees

You must notify employees in their primary language, and employees must acknowledge that they have received the information. This can be done by signing a form, acknowledging receipt electronically (for example, in your payroll system), or in another way you decide.

Model notifications will be available on the Paid Leave website soon.

Prepare your workplace

Make decisions now about how Paid Leave will work in your organization.

Decide how to split premiums
Set up a clear notification process
Decide whether to allow supplemental payments

Paid Leave only replaces part of an employee’s wages. As an employer, you decide whether to allow certain other benefits – including vacation and sick time – to “top off” payments from the program. If you allow it, employees can choose to use these supplemental payments to make up the difference between Paid Leave and their regular wages while on leave.

If you decide not to allow supplemental payments, employees who want to receive their full, usual wage while on leave need to use their vacation, sick time, or other paid time off instead of Paid Leave.
Set your intermittent leave policy

Employees can take leave in small blocks of time rather than all at once. You decide the shortest block of time an employee can use.

You can also decide how much leave time can be taken as intermittent leave. Employees can take up to 480 hours of leave intermittently each year if they qualify (the equivalent of 12 weeks at 40 hours per week). If someone qualifies to take up to the maximum 20 weeks of leave in a year, you can decide if that additional time can also be taken intermittently, or if it must be taken in one continuous block.